The invention relates to a device and method for making beverages such as coffee, espresso, latte, mocha, tea, fruit juice, cocoa or the like from flavor-containing materials, and particularly to a compact, easy to use and low-cost device and method for making better tasting beverages from flavor-containing materials.
Beverages such as coffee and espresso drinks are commonly brewed by causing hot water to pass through the coffee grounds above a disposable or permanent filter either under gravity in case of manual or automatic drip coffee maker or under pressure in case of espresso machines.
Such devices, although popular, have numerous drawbacks such as inconsistent brew quality and lack of the original aroma in the roasted beans. The quality of coffee and espresso brewed varies significantly when coffee grounds of different sizes are used. When grounds is too coarse, the resulting brew is watery; when too fine, the brewing becomes very slow or even stops. The coffee or espresso brewed lacks the aroma or alluring smell of the ground coffee, even when it is made expensive commercial machines in premium coffee shops.
Other drawbacks include bulky size, complicated brewing process, high manufacturing cost, and time-consuming cleaning. Such devices normally take a space over four times larger than the volume of beverage they are designed to brew, which becomes an issue as the countertop or desktop becomes increasingly crowded. The brewing process, especially for espresso machines, involves many steps such as adding grounds to filter, mounting filter, filling water reservoir, heating and pumping water, placing cup or carafe under the basket, is too complex for some people. The manufacturing cost, especially for espresso machines, is very high since numerous components such as heater and pump, reservoir, a brew head, brew basket, basket holder, carafe, housing are required. Finally, such devices require a user to clean many parts such as filter basket, holders, carafe, brew head and cups, which, although not difficult, is a major nuance for many people.
The inventor in U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,740 provided a coffee and espresso device for making better tasting coffee and espresso by transforming the brewed beverage from coffee filter into a high-speed jet. The jet is arranged to inject into the coffee or espresso maintained in a containing means to generate a layer of visually crema in the cup. One issue with this improved device is that it still requires the delivery of liquid through the ground coffee, which increases the complexity, cost and size of the device.
The invention is an innovative simple device and method for making better beverages from flavor-containing materials. The device comprises a body for connecting to a container adapted to allow the formation of a dispersion of flavor-containing materials in a liquid and the extraction of the flavor-containing materials to produce a beverage, a porous filter connected to the body and having a first surface for contacting the dispersion, a plurality of filtration openings for allowing the beverage in the dispersion to pass through while blocking the flavor-containing materials and a second surface in communication with a beverage outlet from which the beverage may be poured or drunk, and a seal mechanism for securing the body to the container to allow the container to be tilted to generate a liquid head to drive the beverage out of the container through the filtration openings. In a preferable embodiment of the invention, the seal mechanism has a cling-on chamber on the body for forming a vacuum when being pushed into the container and then released to suck to the interior surface of the container. The device may further comprise a blending/mixing mechanism for stirring or breaking the flavor-containing materials and liquid in the container, thereby generating a visually appealing crema or foamy head on the dispersion and/or facilitating extraction of the flavor-containing materials by the liquid therein. The blending/mixing mechanism includes a plate, rod or blade operative either manually or by an electric motor. The device may further comprise a flow facilitator for increasing the flow of the beverage through the filtration openings. The facilitator has a selective opening adapted to allow air to enter the container to prevent the formation of vacuum but prevent or restrict the flavor-containing materials from getting out of the container in the event that the dispersion covers the selective opening under a liquid head or force, thereby ensuring that the beverage out of the container is free of the materials.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device and method for making better tasting beverage from flavor-containing materials with a visually appealing top crema layer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device and method for grounding, extracting and filtering the flavor-containing materials in the same container to capture all the aroma in the resulting beverage.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device and method that are simple, intuitive and has little or even no need to clean after usage.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the most compact beverage device that is nearly as small as the volume of the beverage it brews at a time.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a low cost beverage brewing device and a brewing device that can be affordable to be disposed after one use.
These and other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken together with the accompanying drawings.